His Own Personal Heaven
by nygiants93
Summary: Brief Summary: This is slightly based on my fight with colitis and "Little Matchstick Girl" from what I remember about it, as I read it when I was young . A short, one-chapter story about a boy who is sick and because of his illness, he becomes alone in his fight with only his parents and his escapism to help him get through it.


**His Own Personal Heaven**

**All right, this is a quick story I wrote out tonight. It is slightly based on my own experiences with ulcerative colitis when I was younger. I am thinking of uploading this story on fim-fiction along with "The Human Elements of Harmony" (note, this is slightly like Pete's own experiences in that story), so please let me know what you think and if you feel it's goo enough to go up there.**

**Just so you know, I never had megacolon, but I did have a total colectomy a few years ago and "knock on wood", everything's been pretty good with my stomach since. :)**

**This story is dedicated to all of the people who feel abandoned by their friends when they get an illness and they become ignored.**

**Also dedicated to those who suffer from colitis, a disease people know too little about.**

**So please read and review, and criticism is welcome (as long as it's constructive).**

**And, like with my other stories, I only own my OCs.**

There was nothing like laying in a hospital bed, your miserable mother by your side and your father downstairs grabbing some food in the cafeteria as you waited to hear back from your doctors regarding your latest set-back, to make you feel alive.

Tim was a normal fifteen-year-old boy with brown hair and large, bright blue eyes that shone out on his thin, unhealthy looking face. He was watching television as he waited for the doctors to come back into the room to tell him the diagnosis, hoping that it wasn't megacolon, but knowing deep down that it was. He had felt like garbage recently, even more so than usual. He had a very high fever and abdominal swelling that had concerned his mother enough to speed them to the hospital to get tested. He had arrived at the hospital a few hours before and has been feeling progressively worse ever since.

"_Just another day in my life."_ Thought the sickly fifteen-year old boy whose only friends were his parents.

For most of his life Tim was happy. He was the single child of two parents who loved him unconditionally, and would never stop loving him for any reason, as he learned during his ordeal with colitis. He was a great soccer player, smart, and had a ton of friends who he could always count on to go see a movie with or just hang out over the weekends. They even had their fair share of sleepovers as they grew up. Everything was going swell for Tim, and it looked like he had a great life ahead.

That is, until, he turned twelve.

On the night before Holiday break. Tim got a stomach bug that had been spreading around the school, making kids run to the bathroom, vomit all over the hallway, it was like a mini plague had swept the school.

Even though he was sick, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It just seemed like a typical bug. That was, however, until he started getting worse. Every day he felt worse and his parent's didn't know what was happening until he had his first ever colonoscopy, something that no child his age should ever have to go through.

It was after this that he was told the bad news. He was diagnosed with the chronic disease known as colitis, something that he never heard of until that point. Apparently the virus he caught from his classmates had triggered the disease, which had not flared up until that point.

Upon first receiving the news, he was glad that it wasn't cancer, and even happier when the medicine began to work and his condition began to improve. He soon got on with his normal life, his colitis was in remission, and nothing was out of the ordinary for the young boy.

But this remission only lasted so long. For not even a year passed by before he began to face the emergence of massive flair-ups, flair-ups that his medicine was powerless to stop.

All of the medical steroids, remicade, and other drugs were powerless to stop the spread of the disease. In fact, one medicine had managed to give him pancreatitis, something that only three percent of the population got. This only made his colitis worse, and continued to destroy his life.

Over the next few years, he went from weighing a healthy 130 pounds to a measly 102 pounds. He went to the bathroom more times in one day than most people did in an entire week. He eventually couldn't eat without the constant feeling of nausea, which eventually led to his massive weight loss.

Slowly, but surely, he began to wither away.

Soon, his friends began to forget about him. All of those movies that show on television, all of those Hallmark movies showing friends sticking by their friends when they need them the most? Utter trash, completely false, when Tim got sick he got to experience the truth.

That friends weren't as reliable as they were on television, not in this reality. In this reality, if you slipped off of their radar even the slightest bit, they forgot about you completely. Friends were only there for you when it was convenient for them, at least that's how Tim saw it after his ordeal.

Tim also remembered the day that he was in school, and he heard that a rumor spread among the school that he had cancer.

And still, no one bothered to ask how he was feeling. No one asked if there was anything they could do. No one even bothered to talk to him AT ALL.

When he was at school, he was ignored completely.

Every time Tim went to the hospital, he realized more and more that he only had his parents to count on. Almost no one came up to visit him, and if they did they didn't talk to him. One "friend" of his even went on bragging about how he had taken the forward position on the soccer team, the position that Tim had played for years before he got sick.

As time passed, from age thirteen, when his disease had just begun to escalate, until now Tim lost his faith in humanity. He began to lose faith in the friendship people around him shared. Whenever he saw some kids hanging out at school, he would always let out a sad sigh, thinking about how superficial their bonds most likely were.

Wondering if they would be there for each other when need be, or would they abandon each other?

Sure, he did think that strong and honest friendships could exist, but he knew that he never got to experience it. He knew that he was abandoned.

Save for his parents, he was alone. Fighting a disease that had recently landed him in the hospital yet again with massive abdominal pain that felt as though some invisible force was stabbing him over and over. Save for his parents, he had no one to turn to, no friends, nothing.

Tim looked around the small white room with the single window that he was in with his mother, as she watched television. She tried to act stoic given the circumstances, but even Tim could make out the glimmer of tears in her eyes.

Tim loved his parents more than anyone else, and their support was appreciated. But sometimes they weren't enough, sometimes Tim just felt like he needed a friend to be by his side as well. Someone to be there for him other than his parents, not to mention the lack of visits or attention made him feel like he was worthless, like no one outside of his two parents cared about him.

When his friends began to forget about him, he began to watch more television, trying to find escapism in fictional stories and characters.

One such show was "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic." The reason that he chose to watch the show was not because of peer pressure or the mountains of memes that he found online, but because he heard how happy it made people feel when they watched it. Not really caring about his reputation at this point, as he really had no reputation to lose, he decided to watch it and see if it could help him escape the pain of his everyday life.

Needless to say, it did.

For the months leading up to his current predicament, Tim had become obsessed with the show. Not just because of the escapism that he was looking for and that the show provided him, but also because of the characters, and how they made him feel less abandoned and alone

What he saw in the show was a true friendship between six friends that had a bond between them that he always wished he could have. Friends that wouldn't ever abandon you, no matter what happened. To him, they weren't just cartoon characters; they were his friends. Even though they were fictional, they had been there for him more than any of his real "friends" at school had.

They made him happy, their adventures, their antics, their personalities, their happy faces, everything about them made him happier than he would have been had he never seen the show.

Night after night, after running to the bathroom for the twentieth time of the day, Tim would crawl into his bed and cry. Cry because they weren't real, and there was nothing that he wanted more than to have them by his side, making him feels like he wasn't a loser. Like people outside of his family actually cared about him.

He knew they would never abandon him.

As he lay in the hospital bed while his mother sad by his side, her hand placed firmly on his right arm, he began to think about the mane six ponies, and imagine what they'd say to him if they were by his side at that moment.

He imagined Twilight leaning over him, her big, expressive violet eyes meeting his as she gave him a reassuring smile.

"_Everything will be fine Tim,"_ she said, _"we're here for you."_

He then would see honest Applejack trot over to his other side and put her hoof onto his chest before she gave a nod and said, _"And we'll never abandon ya, no matter what."_

Tim smiled at the imaginary ponies that sat beside him. He then turned to see the other four friends came forward and gave him reassuring smiles. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy landed on the bed beside him, while Rarity and Pinkie Pie were next to his legs. Each of them had the most caring eyes; Tim actually felt that they cared about him.

"_No matter what happens, you have us." _Rainbow Dash said. Her loyalty always made Tim happy. Unlike his own friends who were athletes, who forgot about him when he had to stop playing soccer due to his illness, he knew that Rainbow Dash would never forget him. He knew that she would always be there, just like the others five would.

"Tim."

Tim snapped out of his imaginary scene of joy and bliss before he turned to face his mother. She was giving him a reassuring smile and put her hand onto his, patting it softly, "You know how proud we are of you, right? For how strong you've been through everything?"

Tim gave his mom a small smile and nodded, his face thinly veiled the wave of emotions that he felt at the moment, the joy from his mother's presence, the sadness from his lack of friends, and his nervousness about his stomach, and what news the doctor would bring him.

His mom then put her hand up to Tim's forehead, which was extremely warm due to his high temperature, and brushed the hair out of the way so she could lean in and kiss it. Tim could feel her tears landing on his gown as she kissed his forehead, showing how she was trying her hardest to disguise her misery for her son's benefit.

Just then, Tim's father came in with a tray of food. Right behind him was the doctor, who was carrying a silver clipboard and had a very somber look on his face.

"Guys?" Tim's father said seriously before he pointed to the doctor in the white coat behind hm, "the doctor's here with the results."

Tim's mother looked up from Tim's forehead and wiped her tears away from her eyes, all though it was blatantly obvious to everyone in the room that she had been crying.

The doctor walked in and stopped in front of Tim's mother before letting out a sigh and saying the news that they had dreaded to hear.

Tim had megacolon, and needed emergency surgery to remove the organ from his body. As soon as the doctor had told the family the news, Tim's mother let out a gasp.

"Oh no…" she said, knowing how dangerous megacolon was. "How…how bad is it?"

The doctor sighed, "Bad enough that Tim could die if we don't take care of it."

As soon as those words left the doctor's mouth. Tim's mother broke down in tears, hugging Tim closely as she sobbed. Tim's father walked over to her side and hugged her before looking down at Tim, who just stared at his hands as tears began to swell in his eyes. The three family members were hugging each other in their collective misery as the doctor watched. He felt horrible for delivering such scary news, but knew that he had to keep a strong face for the family.

The doctor said how it was vital that he go in for surgery, how it wasn't so bad that surgery would be too risky, but it was bad enough where they needed to operate on the boy as soon as possible. The operating room was set up for them, and they were ready to operate on the boy.

After a few more words about the surgery to Tim's saddened parents, the doctor left to make the final preparations. Tim was frozen in fright, frozen in depression. He looked to see his parents crying in each other's arms, forgetting that their son was there as their worry consumed them.

After a few moments, his mother broke away from his father and hugged Tim, crying into his shoulder.

"Honey, come on. Everything will be fine." Tim's father tried to reassure his wife, but to no avail. "They'll take the organ out and everything will be done. If it's done well he won't even have colitis since his bastard organ will be out."

"Mom I'll be fine." Tim managed to whisper to his mother. Tim hugged his mother back and began to silently cry into her. He was scared, petrified, horrified, mortified by the news. Even though he had his parents with him, he still felt alone. But he had to be strong. He was dying on the inside, especially as he saw the pain his parents were in, and how worried they were. But for their sake he had to remain as strong as possible.

A little while later the doctors came by to bring Tim down for his surgery. His parents followed doctors that were walking alongside the bed carrying their son. After a long ride through the white, brightly lit hallways of the hospital, they finally reached the operating room.

Tim's parents both told Tim they'd "see him when he woke up" and "everything will be fine".

Tim didn't buy it, but he still gave his parents a smile, hoping that it would put them to ease.

After one last session of hugs and kisses, both of Tim's parents left their son to his operation, both praying that he'd make it out fine. But they had managed to put on smiles as they waved to Tim, hoping to instill some comfort in their own son, as the door to the room shut behind him.

Tim watched, as the doctors got ready, putting instruments onto a small tray next to the teenager's head, scalpels, stapler, everything that was necessary for the colostomy. The nurses in the room pressed the heart-monitor stickers onto the boy's chest and back before they lay him back down, placing a warm blanket over him to help him relax, even though it didn't help him relax at all.

He listened to the soft "beep-beep" of the heart monitor next to his head, going slightly fast as he was nervous about the surgery, even if he tried his best to hide it from the doctors that surrounded him.

"All right Tim," said the anesthesiologist in the room, "I am about to administer the anesthetic through your I.V. You will start to feel drowsy for a little bit, but soon you'll be out."

Tim nodded and watched as the doctor who had just spoken to him walked over to the IV tubing and pressed a needle into it before injecting the anesthetic.

He began to think about episodes of "My Little Pony", he began to think of the character's smiling faces and bright eyes. Their words of encouragement that they never truly said to him, but that he had imagined they would if they existed. He thought these things in order to escape from the horrible reality he was stuck in for his whole life, a reality that consisted of pain, sickness, and isolation.

Just before the anesthetic took effect, Tim had one last thought about the girls, and he wished he could see the faces one more time before he passed out. The image of all six of them flashed into his mind, looking down at him with the most comforting faces. Their eyes were concerned, but their smiles told him they'd be there for him.

Just like his parents had been.

Soon the world went black and Tim was out like a light. Tim remained in a void of darkness, floating around in a dreamless sleep. Suddenly, out of nowhere, he heard a comforting voice call out to him.

"Tim, wake up."

He slowly tried to open his eyes only to be blinded by a very bright light. He tried to move, but realized that he was numb, his feeling only slowly returning to him as he heard a slew of other voices ring out.

"Come on sugarcube, open yer eyes." Said a familiar, kind voice.

"Yeah! I really want to throw you a party, but I can't do that if you won't wake up!" said a familiar cheery, bubbly voice.

"Um...if you don't mind, could you open your eyes." Said a familiar timid voice.

Tim was too groggy to recognize the voices, but he knew for a fact that he had heard them from somewhere. All three voices were of girls, and all three were familiar, he just couldn't put his finger on where he heard them before.

He groaned and started to open his eyes again, the light now less intense than it was before, possibly because he was more prepared for it.

"Come on dude, you can do it." Came a familiar, raspy, tomboyish voice from above Tim.

Tim's vision began to come back to him as he saw six colored figures in front of him, all blurred to the point where he couldn't quite recognize them, yet they still had a vague familiarity about them, just like the voices.

Also in front of him was something that seemed to be a lamp, apparently used to wake him up as the bright light shone directly into his face with a burning intensity. Once his eyes were slightly open, the lamp was turned off and the brightness disappeared.

"_That's better."_ Tim thought to himself as he continued to wake himself up.

Just then, the closest blur, one that was purple, leaned closer to his face. It was so close, that he could feel its breath against his face as it looked down at him.

"He's coming to guys!" said the purple figure.

That's when Tim's vision came back completely and he was met with the familiar image of the violet unicorn that he had only before seen on television.

She smiled warmly at the now fully woken Tim, "Hi Tim, glad to see you're up."

Tim's mouth hung open as he saw Twilight Sparkle directly in front of him. "Holy…you…you're Twilight S-Sparkle."

Twilight nodded and gave a small chuckle, "Yes Tim. It is me, and yes before you ask, I am real."

"As are we." Came the posh voice of Rarity from behind Twilight. Tim looked around to see the six ponies that he loved, the six ponies that he had wished to meet for the longest time, the six ponies that had been there to make him feel better, whether they knew it or not.

He realized that he was sitting on the wooden floor of Twilight's library tree house; the six mares all sitting in front of him with the happiest faces he'd ever seen.

Tim shook his head in disbelief, "I…this can't be real." he muttered before he put his hand to his head to rub it, only to realize that his hand was no longer a hand. He looked at his arm to see that instead of his usual, human arm, he had a hoof that was covered in yellow fur.

His mouth hung open when he looked at his other hand to see the same thing, a yellow hoof. He continued to look over his body and came to the realization that he was a pony. He then looked on his back and saw a pair of yellow wings that showed how he wasn't just a pony; he was a pegasus. He stared at their stunning brilliance before mentally trying to flap them a little. Amazingly, the wings did just what his mind told them to do and gave a little flap in response.

"Okay, now I know I'm dreaming." He muttered. "I'm not a pony, there's no way. This is just something that happens in fan-fictions, not reality."

"Tim you ain't dreaming." Applejack said as she stepped forward with a smile. "This here is all real. Yer really a pegasus, and we're really here with ya."

"No, no I…I just went in for surgery." Tim muttered to himself as he nodded in self-assurance, "I'm still asleep. That's it, I'm still in surgery and this is all a dream. That's the only possibility."

He looked up to see the smiles that had been on the girls' faces vanished; replaced with sorrowful expressions, as if Tim had just said something to upset them. He immediately became confused before Twilight spoke up.

"Tim," she began before placing her hoof onto his shoulder. He turned to face her, their eyes met and Tim felt warmth from within him that he never felt before. It was warmth that told him this mare actually cared about him, more than anyone besides his parents ever had. "Tim you aren't asleep…not anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"Tim you…" Twilight began before she became too choked up to continue. She gave a small, sad sniffle before she let out a sigh sighed, "maybe I should just show you."

She leaned forward and pressed her horn to Tim's head. He felt an immense pressure enter his head, like a presence had pushed its way in, when suddenly he saw the image of his parents sitting in the waiting room, waiting for their son to come out of surgery, when the doors from the operating room opened and the doctor stepped out. He walked over to Tim's parents, who both stood up and walked over to meet the doctor, Tim's mother running over to him with a nervous expression on her face. Once they were in front of him, the doctor pulled his mask down and Tim could see his lips mouth out the words that no one whose waiting for someone to get out if surgery wants to hear.

_I'm sorry_.

As soon as those two words passed the Doctor's lips, Tim's mother instantly let out a loud sob and fell into a crouching position; her hands covered her face as she cried into them. Tim's father bent down to her and hugged her. He started to whisper to her, consoling her to the best of his abilities as she continued to cry.

Tim felt tears coming to his eyes as the image played out, realizing now what Twilight had tired to tell him earlier, that he wasn't just asleep and in the operating room. He wasn't going to wake up.

"No…" he whispered as the image disappeared and he was back sitting in Twilight's tree house, surrounded by the sympathetic faces of six ponies.

"Tim, we're so sorry." Twilight said sadly. "We hoped it wouldn't be this hard, but we should have understood your predicament more when you arrived. We're sorry."

This was all Tim could take his before he broke down and began to sob uncontrollably.

He was dead and his parents were crying about him. He could feel his entire body begin to shake as he buried his face into his hooves and continued to cry. His parents were crying about him, the only ones who ever cared about him; were now having to deal with him no longer being there with him.

It was then that he felt the warm embrace of someone…or somepony…as she wrapped her hooves around his torso in a tight, comforting hug. He opened his tear-filled eyes to see that Twilight was the one who was hugging him, rubbing his back to console him as he continued to cry softly into her mane.

"I'm sorry Tim, I really am." She said soothingly.

Tim wasn't used to the feeling of someone who he had just met hugging him and being so kind to him. After all, not even his closest "friends" would do anything like that to him.

Just then, he got an even bigger surprise to feel another set of arms hug him, then another…and another. Soon, he realized that all six girls were hugging him tightly.

"Tim everything will be fine." Pinkie Pie said from where she was hugging Tim. "I pinkie promise you."

"We're here for you." Fluttershy said in her quiet voice.

"Just because people on your world forgot you, doesn't mean we will." Rarity said comfortingly.

As they all broke the hug, Tim did have to admit that he did feel better. But then he looked up at the girls, "So, why am I here? Why am I not in heaven?"

The girls looked at each other and gave small smiles before Twilight turned to Tim.

"Tim this is your heaven, our world is where you've always wished you could be. A place where you'd feel like you belong; with us."

"Did God send me here?" Tim asked.

"We did." Twilight said with a smile

Tim wiped his eyes and gave a small sniffle, "But…but why me? Why did you girls pick me to come here? Why not somebody else?"

"Because you've always wanted to know what it's like to have friends." Rainbow Dash said as she landed beside Tim, "and now you have that chance. Princess Celestia told us about you and how you were abandoned by your friends when you needed them the most."

"We've been watching you ever since you started to watch us on television," Twilight said with a smile. "All of those times you felt happy watching us; it was because we were watching over you. When you passed on I cast a spell to bring your spirit here. Once it arrived, it took the form of a pegasus and here you are, this is what you wanted, right?" Twilight asked somewhat nervously.

Tim looked back down at his yellow hooves, and then at each pony in front of him. Tim's eyes went wide as he looked from pony to pony, each one providing him the only source of true happiness that he felt for years. Just watching them always made him feel whole, made him feel less alone than he really was.

"Yes...yes it is." Tim muttered as he felt a little happier at this realization.

He felt Rarity's hoof on his shoulder that was opposite of Twilight, and turned to her as she smiled. "Darling nopony should ever be alone in life. Your parents were wonderful, but seeing you without any friends made us feel absolutely dreadful."

"That's why ya always felt great watchin' us." Applejack said with a warm smile, "because we were there. Not physically, but in yer mind."

Tim couldn't believe what they were telling him. He suddenly felt like he was going to cry again, but now from happiness. In a matter of five minutes of meeting them face-to-face, Tim already felt more welcomed into their group than he had with anyone else in his school.

Fluttershy walked over to him next, "We know you didn't have such a great life in your world, and that almost nopony was there for you when you needed them. But we are here for you now, and we'll always be."

"No matter what happens!" Pinkie Pie said with a big grin before giving Tim a big bear-hug, "Sick or healthy! We'll stick by you."

Tim was hardly able to hold back his tears anymore when Twilight said ten words that put him over the edge. "We love you Tim, you're our friend, and nothing will ever change that."

Tim then broke down, but it was more tears of joy. He had actual friends that would be there for him; friends that he didn't even meet until a few moments before; friends that he could count on to be by his side.

He looked up and smiled at the girls, "Thank you." He whispered, "Thank you for everything girls."

"What are friends for?" Rainbow Dash asked with a smile, "also, I really want to teach you how to fly." She pointed her hoof at Tim's new pegasus wings.

Tim looked up at Rainbow Dash, just then remembering his wings. He chuckled, "Yeah, that…that would be great Rainbow Dash. Thanks."

"No problemo. Now come on, let's go start your new life!" she shouted before flying over to the door. Tim stood up on four legs, making sure he had his balance only to realize that he was able to do so no problem.

"The spell I cast made it easier for you to walk on four legs." Twilight said with a smile, "don't be nervous."

Tim nodded and took a few steps, realizing that it actually felt natural to walk on four legs rather than two. He smiled before he turned to Twilight.

"Thank you Twilight."

Twilight smiled back, "Don't mention it, now go out and fly."

Tim smiled at Twilight and trotted off. In his mind he thought about his parents, and he still missed them dearly. They were the most supportive, kindest people in the world. In a world that he had lost faith in, they were the sole beacon that kept his hope alive.

He hoped one day he'd be able to see them again, but for now he had entered a world where he no longer was sick, no longer alone, no longer in pain, and he knew that if his parents knew where he was, they'd be happy.

Back in the hospital, Tim's parents were still hugging each other, though both were standing now. Tim's father was trying his best to comfort his wife, who continued to cry.

"Why did this happen?" she muttered sadly into the fabric of her husband's polo shirt, "why Tim? What did he do?"

"He didn't do anything sweetie, it's just how this world works." Tim's father muttered as his own eyes began to fill with tears, "but he's in a better place. I know it. A place where he isn't in pain anymore, and where he'll finally find the peace that had been deprived of him while he was alive."

And he was, he was in a better place.

He was in his own personal heaven.

Equestria.

**That's it. Please let me know what you thought, and if you have any suggestions for me to fix it, please let me know. **

**Thanks **


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